Dead Island

Yager (Spec Ops: The Line) was recently fired from developing Dead Island 2 by publisher Deep Silver as the companies' "respective visions of the project fell out of alignment."
Last week, July 22, Yager Productions filed for...

What happens when you have nothing to show at E3, delay Dead Island 2, and then fire the developer of Dead Island 2?
HD remake! HD remake!
South African retailer Loot.co.za listed (now removed) Dead Island: Definitive Edition for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It would certainly make sense while Deep Silver figures out how to get Dead Island 2 and silly ass Homefront into 2016.
via @lifelower

Still doing Dead Island 2Deep Silver has announced it is parting ways with Dead Island 2 developer Yager (Spec Ops: The Line). Just a few months ago, Deep Silver delayed the game into 2016 over quality concerns.
The publisher made this announcement w...

Dead Island 2 was supposed to release this spring, but that's no longer in the cards, as Deep Silver has announced the open-world zombie game has been delayed until 2016.
The publisher and development team at Spec Ops: T...

Dec 27 //
Brittany Vincent
Escape Dead Island (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC [reviewed])Developer: FatsharkPublisher: Deep SilverReleased: November 18, 2014MSRP: $59.99
The game kicks off with a small prequel scene cataloging the events just prior to the beginning of the first game. Xian Mei of the original Dead Island plays Halo's Cortana to your generic Commando. After infiltrating a top secret lab (the only kind of labs video games know about) the two discover that YouTube commenters are right and a big corporation is in fact part of some Illuminati clone, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then a Tyrant or something kills you.
The real treat comes when you meet Escape Dead Island's star: the rich kid with daddy issues that is equal parts Frank West, Jason Brody, and Colonel John Konrad. He decides the best way to get his father to love him is to go to Banoi with his two friends/employees and solve the mystery. However, this game lacks the creative writing of Scooby-Doo and the plot only serves to loosely tie the haphazard gameplay together. The only vaguely interesting part of the plot is related to the increasingly tenuous grasp on sanity the main character has, but we’ll get into that a bit later.
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Okay, so the plot is a bit generic and uninspired. Common complaints at this point, so what about the gameplay? Well, Escape Dead Island seems to have a hard time deciding exactly what it wants to be. Is it a stealthy survival horror title like Alien: Isolation? Is it an over-the-top zombie-killing free-for-all with photography elements like Dead Rising? Is it a combination of stealth and action like State of Decay? Is it a commentary on the fragility of the human psyche like Spec Ops: The Line? An exploratory action-adventure like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? It so badly wants to be all of those things, but fails terribly.
In the beginning you’ll rely on stale stealth mechanics to channel that genre for good measure. The stealth sections exist solely just to be stealth sections. There’s never a sense of urgency or danger, just “If I don’t do the stealth then I lose.” This goes against any successful concept of stealth as the enemies are not smart or really ever too much of a threat.
The photography elements are worthless as well, as there are no point or upgrade systems. Your character will just comment on specific items you take pictures of, and they’re not particularly inspired comments either. Near the end of the game, you’ll have plenty of weapons and will be going Rambo on some zombies, but the controls are so mushy that it’s not very satisfying and makes the previous stealth gameplay seem even more cliche and needless. Oh, and the backtracking. Get a grappling hook? Time to backtrack. Find a gas mask? Better backtrack. With a game like Symphony of the Night, backtracking doesn’t feel so much like a chore because the gameplay is centered and focused to the point where it seems like natural progression. In Escape Dead Island, I couldn’t help but feel like it existed to pad more gameplay time on.
The one somewhat unique thing this game has going for it is the growing insanity of the player character. As time goes on, his mind becomes more and more unhinged, as an increasing amount of hallucinations encroach into the game. It's actually quite interesting. However, Escape Dead Island's pacing strangles the one element that could have set it apart as noteworthy. For the first quarter or so of the game, the insanity elements are few and far between and although they grow in note, it isn’t until the last quarter that they really blossom, but by then the build-up was too much and I had grown tired of the whole thing. I won’t ruin it because it is genuinely the one part of the game I found interesting, but unfortunately it was too little too late, and too static of an experience. If there had been a sanity meter a la Eternal Darkness, it truly could have saved the game for me.
The visuals at least are non-offensive. They attempt to replicate the cel-shaded comic book appeal, but in this type of game, which tries to tell a gritty and tragic story, the graphic novel look is a bit of an odd choice. Unlike Sunset Overdrive which reveled in its zany disconnection from logic and the real world, or The Walking Dead, where its graphics are an homage to its graphic novel origins, Escape Dead Island seems content to piggyback off of the popularity of cel-shaded games that are far and away better than it could ever be.
Last, but not least, the replay value must be discussed. It consists of a host of audio files and data on BigBad Co. experiments and postcards. There are also a ton of pictures that must be taken in order to see everything. The collecting is not terrible, but it gives nothing in return as there isn't anything to really connect you to this world enough to care about the tidbits of info you're after. Unlike the random notes and books in Dragon Age: Inquisition, or the audio logs in the BioShock series, I didn’t ever find myself caring enough to learn more about these people, thus making the collectibles completely superfluous.
Escape Dead Island is what would happen if after all the big AAA games were born, after the doctors all shook each others' hands and the bouncy babies went home, someone scooped up all the afterbirth and tried to cobble together their very own abomination. The game in and of itself is serviceable enough, but it’s the lack of any soul that makes it so infuriating to play. There are plenty of games that in theory play worse that I enjoy infinitely more.
The first Dead Island was absolutely ridiculous and quite flawed in my opinion, but because I can feel the love that went into the game and thus the care, it's a blast to play in some areas because the developers cared if I had fun. Unlike its predecessors, Escape Dead Island feels devoid of heart or identity. It is a cruel reminder of the shovelware that plagued the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and the Wii and behind its generic facade hides a malnourished newborn of a game starved for nutrition and attention.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]

Run, you'll never escapeIn my years as a freelancer and staffer at various videogame outlets, I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing a ton of great games. In fact, this year I had the privilege of reviewing pretty much every “AAA” game...

Do you like piña coladas and getting caught in zombie-infested time loops? Are you not into yoga, but into land masses that are surrounded by water on all sides? Deep Silver took out a personal ad. It wants ...

Aug 16 //
Dale North
I played in a group with three others, with each of us playing one of the two available classes in the demo. The berserker class does exactly what you'd expect: crowd control. Named Ryan, he can push through with big weapons, breaking up zombie traffic with only a few swings. But I played as Dani, a speeder. She's quicker, and can slice limbs off with her blade. She's great for the type of player that likes to slash and run.
Both types work great on the standard zombies, called walkers. A short bout of slashes has their heads flying off easily. There are runners that charge at you out of nowhere, though. Playing Dani made it easy to get in and get things done. She was also great for getting the hell away from the suiciders -- the zombies that explode after they chase you down.
Dani has this great move where she can sneak up on a big zombie thug tank-type character, get behind it, kick it to have it fall on its knees, and then cut it up in a big way. I did that a few times. Her big attack required a wait, but if it hit right it would slice most zombies clean in half.
It's too bad that our demo had no real objectives outside of a short defense mission, guarding a video store. That was still a good time, though. I looted an electronics store to upgrade my weapons, snuck around a neighborhood, fought in backyards, and found some great vantage points to enjoy the view. I enjoyed playing with the various weapons the demo had available. Picking a lock in the back of a gas station had me finding a wood axe to get slashy with. And throwing propane tanks into crowds is always fun.
Dead Island 2 isn't finished -- what I played was considered pre-alpha -- but it's looking pretty nice already. Things lagged a bit when the crowds got thick, and there was a weird blur when I spun the camera around. Still, the highly detailed neighborhood was easy to appreciate, and the California sun that drenched the streets was just as I know it to be. The Hollywood sign served as a backdrop to all of this.
Crowd control in a small, closed space is only fun for so long, but I'm sure there will be plenty of next-gen gutting in the final game. We'll get a better look at it as we draw closer to its Spring 2015 release date. Dead Island 2 is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Hands-on at gamescomYou'll be able to explore Los Angeles, Santa Monica, some beaches, a golf course, and maybe even more in the final version of Dead Island 2. But what Deep Silver was showing at gamescom 2014 was pretty limited. I only got to run around a small, closed-off section of the Los Angeles suburbs. It was a short taste of what the Southern California zombie-slaughtering life is like.

I probably shouldn't get my hopes up
There's a new gameplay trailer out for Dead Island 2, called "Sunshine & Slaughter" revealing a variety of ways to to dispatch the undead. The most interesting of which involves some sort weapon modifier allowing players...

This game is a bloody messy. In a good way. I've never been too keen on Dead Island, but maybe with Spec Ops developer Yager on Dead Island 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One), this will make for a good time. Maybe some white ph...

A few years ago, Lionsgate picked up the film rights to Dead Island but now Deep Silver is moving forward with Occupant Entertainment to "package, produce, and finance" an adaptation.
It's unclear which direction the movie wi...

Remember the last time we talked about a Dead Island collector's edition and it was a disembodied female torso? I don't think Deep Silver wants to go that route this time, so they're turning to the community to find out what ...

Jul 01 //
Steven Hansen
Escape Dead Island [PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360]Developer: Fatshark SwedenPublisher: Deep SilverRelease: Fall 2014
Contrary to the above image, Escape Dead Island is a stealth-reliant (and story-focused) game. Those two things are interwoven, too. Escape is in part a response to critique of the series' absent characterization and story (hence no multiplayer). There's even a mysterious, Emmy-winning writer behind the script.
The story, like the aforementioned Groundhog's Day, loops. Escape's lead is part of a three-person documentary team trying to figure out what's going on on the closed off island from the first game (it's six week after those events and bridges Dead Islands 1 and 2). This, of course, gets the three stranded on a terrible island of zombies.
You play as Cliff, the loudmouth of the group. He's got some obnoxious combat barks. Cliff's (other) problem is that he keeps waking up at 4:37 and going through time loops, during which he will end up scavenging items that will then be used to open up new available branches. It's a fairly linear world, but with different branches, a "3D Metroidvania, like Darksiders or Zelda." Cliff also experiences color-drained Insanity segments.
I played the fifth or so mission of Escape, which was actually the first time Cliff encountered a zombie. Without weaponry, I had to sneak around the zombie and get to a rope, which I used to get down to a beach. That rope, then, becomes part of cliff's inventory and he'll hang on to it when he cycles back.
From the beach, the goal was to meet up with the ambitious woman and hipster wearing a scarf in a tropical climate that are the rest of Cliff's crew. Sneaking through some buildings, I found a screwdriver, which could be used for stealth kills as some mysterious person kept calling phones in the office I was crouching through, alerting the zombies.
After making it through the area, I ended up looping back to washing up on the beach with Cliff's crew. We walked around for a while, listening to them talk at me, until we reached a point where I'm told, from then on, the game would be more "like a Dead Space" in that you're in communication with your friends, but not directly, and they don't entirely believe everything you're going through.
If you're counting, there's been a number of grand comparisons to some well-liked things (I just last night dreamt Bill Murray was evicting me, but he felt bad about it). I don't anticipate Escape Dead Island will live up to any of them. It's a different look for the series, though, and will release to the past generation of consoles for a more appropriate $40. Those who buy get access to Dead Island 2's beta as well.

Dead Island Epidemic's four-minute gameplay video tries really hard to be hardcore, but I cringed at the way the announcer said the title. It wasn't good. With that said, it looks like it could be fun. Obviously this is a MO...

Jun 16 //
Brett Makedonski[embed]276289:54359:0[/embed]
Dead Island 2 has followed in its predecessor's footsteps with a highly memorable trailer, albeit with a severely different tone. Many would argue that the caliber of Dead Island's cinematic trailer outshone the actual game. Only time will tell what the legacy of this one is.
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Cuphead took a lot of people by surprise when its trailer was showed on Monday morning. "What the hell is this, and why do I want it now?," many probably correctly thought. It's gorgeous, it's wacky, and it doesn't look like else out there. It's Cuphead.
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Maybe the most intriguing of all E3 trailers was the one for From Software's Bloodborne. It's dark and creepy, and because it's From Software, we can expect it's good stuff. While a fine trailer in its own right, it didn't do anything to let us know how Bloodborne plays. Luckily, Dale was around to do that for us.
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If this trailer is any indication, Far Cry 4 will thrive partially because of a strong and insanely evil villain. That was part of the charm of Far Cry 3, and it wouldn't be particularly surprising if Ubisoft went that route again. However, it probably would be particularly enjoyable. This trailer showed Pagan Min doing what he does best, and it made for fine entertainment.
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Nintendo had a few interesting things to show at its E3 Digital Event. One of the definite standouts was Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which was inspired by levels from Super Mario 3D World. That's right, an entire game based on those intermission-style sections. No running, no jumping, just puzzle-solving and collectible-collecting. And it looks truly wonderful.
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Sony capped off its press conference with the reveal of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Its accompanying trailer did exactly what trailers are supposed to do -- get people excited for the game. One more adventure, you say? Sure, we'll happily go along with you, Drake.
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Lara Croft had a rough time in Tomb Raider. It's not surprising that she needs some psychiatric care to work through her trauma. Conveniently for us, that directly translates to getting a glimpse at our next experience with her in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
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What can you say about this trailer for Dead Rising 3's DLC? It was Capcom having fun with things, and that alone is worthy of a mention. Oh yeah, and apparently the DLC was pretty good, too.
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Sunset Overdrive made good use of its time in the limelight. Its trailer managed to act as an FAQ of sorts, show off some gameplay, and even make fun of conventional game mechanics. It's hard to imagine someone watching this and not thinking that all of that bouncing and sliding around looks really fun.
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Valiant Hearts kind of went the other way with its E3 trailer. Rather than get the crowd all excited, it brought the room down. Armed with a puppy and a voiceover, Valiant Hearts made sure everyone knows that this one's going to be a real tear-jerker.
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The world's a big place. The trailer for Hello Games' No Man's Sky makes sure to point that out. Starting in a dinosaur-laden swampland, it's not long before it jettisons off into space. It really drives home that No Man's Sky is a game of infinite exploration and endless possibilities.
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We said that these trailers are in no particular order, but that was a half lie. The truth is, we saved the best for last -- Metal Gear Solid V. Anything said here won't do it justice, so just watch it yourself.

In no particular orderThat's another E3 in the books. After months of speculation as to what gaming's most important convention might hold, four quick days clear everything up. In a way, it almost feels criminally short given everything that's on ...

Ever since Techland's Dying Light was announced, it's drawn comparisons to Dead Island -- the studio's previous title. It's easy to see how many would come to that quick conclusion with it being an open-wo...

The outbreak spreads to California
Huh. I missed that Spec Ops: The Line studio Yager is handling development on Dead Island 2. That knowledge combined with the excellent CG trailer has me mildly interested.
Here's Max sharing his thoughts after seeing an ear...

Dead Island 2 is a thing, unveiled today at Sony's E3 press conference. It'll have a full Sony exclusive beta, as well as an exclusive character on PS4.
The new trailer shown off by Deep Silver shows a complete transformation from an unwitting jogger to a full-on zombie threat.

Over the next two weeks, Humble Bundle will be running 24-hour deals and the promotion kicks off this morning with a repeat of the Humble Deep Silver Bundle. It was a pretty good compilation originally, and it's back with upd...

Ever since the third installment in the series, Saints Row has been a franchise that hasn't been afraid to toot its own horn. Not necessarily without cause, though -- after all, Saints Row IV was pretty darn good. B...

Goats, man. I've been all about them ever since I started playing Coffee Stain Studios' weird, wild, surprisingly secret-filled Goat Simulator. Fact: more games need goats.
As uninterested as I am in Dead Island: Epidemic, a...

The closed beta for Dead Island: Epidemic has gone live and can be played "24/7," on the off chance you signed up for it at the beginning of the month and haven't since lost interest.
In this multiplayer online battle arena g...

Deep Silver has announced that they are now accepting sign-ups for the closed beta of Dead Island: Extinction, the multiplayer online battle arena spin-off of the tropical zombie franchise. The actual start date has not been ...

Microsoft's Games with Gold promotion is becoming a parody of itself. In February, Xbox Live Gold subscribers are once again getting two free titles, one that is the first installment of a popular franchise, and another that'...

Big publisher sales are always a great way of filling any big gaps in your Steam library, especially if there's some franchise bundles. Deep Silver is having a weekend sale on lots of PC titles, including bundle deals for Dea...

In Dead Island: Epidemic -- which is inexplicably a MOBA, if you missed the news -- three teams of four players each have to fend off zombies while also worrying about one another.
And instead of base destruction being the wi...

Here's today's not-live Destructoid Show! On which we discuss the following:
There are two new Zelda games coming out this fall, let's look at videos of them! id software co-founder John Carmack is now working for Ocul...

In a reddit Ask Me Almost Anything with Deep Silver creative director Guido Eickmeyer, question after question wondered about the state of Dead Island. After the recent announcement of Dead Island: Epidemic, a MOBA of all thi...

It sounds like parody, doesn't it? The seemingly unstoppable Dead Island series is moving in a strange new direction with Epidemic, a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game for PC made public today in an oh-so-brie...

Deep Silver is the latest publisher to get a Humble Bundle. For the next two weeks, you'll be able to save big on franchises like Dead Island and Saints Row. The pricing breakdown is slightly different this time, so here's wh...